When Everything Seems Okay
by ashby
Summary: Rating will be for later chapters. Everyone's all grown up with kiddies of their own. Life seems perfect, but eventually all perfection fades...


Disclaimer: I don't own them….  
  
"You give me that back right now!" Ten year old Destiny Weasley was quite red in the face from yelling at her cousin.  
  
The cousin in question, also a ten year old by the name of Alex, grinned wickedly at the crimson haired girl in front of him. "And if I don't, what are you going to do?"  
  
Alex was taller than Destiny by a good three inches, but her temper was more than enough to make her seem as big as him. "If you don't give it back right now, I'll tell my mum!" She raised her brown eyes to meet his daringly.  
  
Alex peered at the girl in front of him through wide green eyes. "Oooh… Tattle-tale, tattle-tale!" He held the doll in his grasp above his head, swinging it by one blonde pigtail. "Why don't you just reach up and get it?"  
  
He knew perfectly well that Destiny couldn't reach it. "GIVE IT BACK!!!!" she shrieked, frustrated from her useless attempts at rescuing the doll.  
  
Her anger only made Alex laugh, though, as he taunted her in a singsong babyish voice. "Why don't you run and tell your mummy?"  
  
Destiny huffed up and was about to do just that when she suddenly had a better idea. "No. I think I'll tell your mum," she said smugly.  
  
Alex's face immediately fell as he dropped the doll to her level. "Here," he offered quickly. Destiny looked at the doll for a second before turning her gaze back up to her cousin.  
  
"Too late." She turned haughtily and made her way toward the tall house behind them.  
  
She could hear Alex's last second attempts of, "Des, wait!" but she didn't stop. He shouldn't steal her things, and he shouldn't make fun of her, either. Destiny was quite sure that his mum would be none too pleased by her report.  
  
She ran the last few feet before entering the back door and walking into her grandmother's kitchen. She saw her nana, her own mum, her aunt Ellie, her aunt Mary, and Alex's mum all sitting around the table sipping tea. They all looked up when she entered, and her mum said, "Destiny, what's wrong?"  
  
Destiny looked at all the women before walking to Alex's mum and saying, "Aunt Ginny, Alex stole my doll, and he wouldn't give it back. And he's teasing me, too!"  
  
Her aunt looked down at her before shaking her head. "Those stupid boys," she said knowingly with a slight smile. "Don't worry, Des; I'll take care of it."  
  
Destiny grinned contently. She knew that Aunt Ginny always took care of things. She'd have her doll back and an apology within minutes- not to mention the satisfaction of knowing that Alex would be punished. She watched as her aunt got up from the table, left the kitchen, and made her way down the grassy knoll to find her offending son.  
  
Destiny rolled her. "Boys are a pain in the butt!"  
  
"Destiny!" Her mum's eyes widened. "That is not nice to say," she said sternly.  
  
Destiny looked around at all the other women. She noticed that her aunts and grandmother were all doing their best to hide snickers.  
  
She grinned and muttered, "Sorry," before grabbing a cookie off the counter and heading into the sitting room. She immediately smiled as she looked around at all the business that this room held. It looked to be much more interesting than the kitchen. Her dad, four of her uncles, and her aunt Angie were all sitting around a table playing a game of Exploding Snap. She heard a string of curse words come out of her uncle Fred's mouth, and she saw Aunt Angie smack him on the arm as everyone else laughed.  
  
She giggled loudly, causing everyone in the room to take notice of her presence. She saw Uncle Fred duck his head guiltily as Aunt Angie smacked him once again. Her dad grinned at her and said, "What're you up to, Munchkin?"  
  
She walked over to the table and instantly climbed into his lap. "Nothing much," she said nonchalantly. "May I have a piece of gum?" she asked, eyeing the pack in front of her.  
  
Aunt Angie immediately grabbed the pack and said, "No!" before turning to Uncle Fred and Uncle George and saying, "Don't even think about it." She turned back to Destiny and smiled warmly. "You don't want any of that, Sweetheart."  
  
Everyone else laughed, and Destiny knew that the gum wasn't normal. Of course, anything that came from Uncle Fred and Uncle George was most likely abnormal. Her mum had once warned her not to eat any sweets unless Aunt Angie gave them to her specifically one night when she'd gone over to her and Uncle Fred's house to spend the night. She knew they specialized in jokes, though she wasn't often allowed to visit their shop. "What does it do?" she asked curiously.  
  
Everyone (except for Aunt Angie) laughed, and her dad said, "Oh, give her a piece."  
  
"Ron, no!" Aunt Angie looked at him incredulously.  
  
"What?" Destiny heard her dad say innocently. "She'll be fine."  
  
"Hermione would kill you," Aunt Angie said seriously, still clasping the gum in question in her hand tightly.  
  
Her dad laughed. "And? What Hermione doesn't know won't hurt her, right Des?" he asked winking.  
  
Destiny started to giggle, but she was interrupted by, "Is that so?" She turned her head slightly to her left and caught a clear view of her mum standing behind them with both hands on her hips.  
  
Instantly, her uncles and aunt erupted into laughter, and Destiny saw her dad grin sheepishly up at her mum and say, "Hey, 'Mione."  
  
"What are you trying to give my daughter?" her mum asked, eyeing the gum in Aunt Angie's hand suspiciously.  
  
"It's harmless, Hermione," Uncle George said, grinning. "Just a little fun."  
  
"A little fun from you two is never harmless." Her mum rolled her eyes at the twins.  
  
"Exactly," echoed Aunt Angie with a nod of the head.  
  
Destiny was still curious about the gum, so she leaned forward on her dad's lap for a better look. "What does it do?" she asked again.  
  
"It's really cool," Uncle Fred grinned mischievously. "When you chew…"  
  
"Don't even tell her, Fred." Destiny saw her mum shooting a warning glare at her uncles.  
  
"Oh, come on, Hermione," her dad said finally. "It's just fun. When you chew a piece, you blow real bubbles instead of gum bubbles."  
  
"And this is your idea of fun?" Her mum's raised eyebrows told Destiny that she didn't quite agree. "Turning our daughter into a human bubble machine… That's the most fun you can come up with, Ron?"  
  
"Well," her dad grinned wickedly up at the woman beside him, "I'm sure I could think of a few things that are a bit more fun…" He said it in a voice that made Destiny pretty sure he was talking about something naughty.  
  
"Ron!" Her mum looked positively scandalized, though Destiny wasn't quite sure why. All of her uncles obviously caught the joke, though, because they were all nearly guffawing with laughter.  
  
Destiny glanced around the table and wrinkled her forehead, "What's so funny?" she asked curiously.  
  
"Nothing!" her mum said shortly, shooting a glare at her father.  
  
"What?" he asked innocently. "I was talking about Quidditch. I don't know where your mind is, Hermione…"  
  
At the mention of Quidditch, Destiny turned her attention to her only uncle that didn't sport red hair. "Do you have a match this weekend, Uncle Harry?"  
  
Uncle Harry grinned at her and shook his head. He was her favorite uncle, and though she knew she wasn't supposed to have favorites, she just couldn't help it. He was Aunt Ginny's husband and her mum and dad's best friend. She knew all about their years at Hogwarts and how they'd defeated the Dark Side; she'd heard the story for as long as she could remember, but she never tired of it. She was actually quite proud of the fact that her mum, dad, and favorite uncle had all but saved the world. But now that they weren't playing heroes anymore, they all had important jobs. Her mum was an information collector for the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic, her dad was an Auror, though she really wasn't supposed to tell too many people this, and Uncle Harry played seeker for the Chudley Cannons, her favorite Quidditch team (of course, her favoritism might have had something to do with the fact that her uncle was the star player… Or maybe the fact that her dad had insisted she be brought home from the hospital when she was born in a Chudley Cannons baby outfit…) Uncle Harry wasn't her only relative who had played professional Quidditch, though; her Aunt Angie had played for the Edinburgh Eagles up until three years ago when she'd had her first baby. Destiny really liked the sport; she played a lot with her cousins and uncles. She was okay, but she wasn't anywhere near as good as Alex was- he must have taken after his dad. But Destiny didn't mind the fact that Alex could beat her so badly at Quidditch because she could whip his butt at chess.  
  
And at that exact moment, the door connecting from the kitchen opened, and Aunt Ginny came in followed closely by Alex who was looking very down trod, indeed. He walked over to her and handed her the blonde doll; then he looked down at the floor and mumbled something that Destiny assumed was supposed to be, "Sorry."  
  
"What did you do?" Uncle Harry asked, eyeing his son carefully. They looked so much alike it was almost scary. Both of them had brilliant green eyes and jet- black hair that never quite lay down straight. The main difference was the absence of glasses on Alex- oh yeah, and the lightning bolt shaped scar that Uncle Harry had on his forehead. Alex had a small scar on his chin, though; he'd gotten it when Destiny had thrown a sharp stick at him during an argument when they were six years old- boy, had she gotten into trouble over that!  
  
"He stole my doll," Destiny answered importantly. "And then he teased me and called me a tattle-tale." She crossed her arms and glared at her cousin who did a wonderful job of shooting the look straight back at her.  
  
"Well, if you weren't such a baby!" Alex was looking straight at her now. "Only babies play with dolls anyway!"  
  
Destiny was infuriated by this! She hated being called a baby worse than anything. "I'm not a baby! You're just a stupid git!"  
  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Her dad cut them off. "I think you both need a nap."  
  
"Daddy, I don't need a nap," she told him indignantly. "He does, though!"  
  
"No, I don't!" Uncle Harry grabbed Alex's arm to calm him down, but Alex kept screaming. "Only babies need naps! Why don't you go suck your pacifier, Destiny?"  
  
"Both of you, go outside," Aunt Ginny said suddenly. "I'm tired of hearing you argue."  
  
Destiny's face fell, and she looked to her dad for defense, but he just nodded his head in agreement with his sister. She huffed up and said, "Where's Bridget?" Bridget was Alex's nine year old sister.  
  
"She's out front with Darryn and Eliza and Braidyn," Aunt Ginny said shooing them out the front door. "Why don't you go find her?"  
  
Alex glared at Destiny as they made their way toward front door begrudgingly. Neither of them spoke as they left the adults in the sitting room.  
  
Once the children were gone, George let out a laugh. "That's precisely why I don't have children," he said knowingly.  
  
"Good God," Harry let out a snicker. "Those two are worse than Ron and Hermione were at that age."  
  
Everyone except for the two aforementioned people found this quite hilarious. Ron and Hermione turned to their bespectacled friend and shot him identical glares. "Is that supposed to be funny?" Hermione asked with raised eyebrows.  
  
"I found it quite humorous," piped Fred.  
  
They ignored him, and Ron said, "Anyway, Potter," he spat the name in the same fashion that their old Potions master might have, "you didn't even know us at that age, so there."  
  
"Close enough," Harry said, grinning. "And 'so there?' Oh, that's mature."  
  
"You stupid prat," Ron said, rolling his eyes in annoyance.  
  
This caused even more laughs, and Angelina said, "Hermione, how did you deal with this growing up?"  
  
Hermione rolled her own eyes and said, "I had to. They required adult supervision." Then, ignoring both Ron and Harry's protests, she said, "But Ginny had it ten times worse than I did. She had to put up with all six of her brothers PLUS Harry."  
  
Angelina and Ginny laughed, but Harry looked offended. "Hey! You say 'plus Harry' like it was a bad thing!"  
  
"It was," Ginny said, grinning at her husband.  
  
At this, four Weasley men burst into laughter. "Oh, right," said Fred knowingly. In a high-pitched, obvious imitation of Ginny, he said, "His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad…"  
  
"Stop!" said Ginny warningly, turning a pale shade of pink.  
  
"I thought it was sweet," Hermione said gently.  
  
"Sweet?" Fred laughed. "His hair is as dark as a blackboard…" George, Ron, and Bill (who had obviously heard the story several times) all broke into laughter along with him.  
  
"I was eleven!" Ginny said haughtily. "Eleven!!"  
  
"Yes, Fred," Angelina said, shooting her husband a warning look. "Eleven. You know, the age that you've finally reached mentally."  
  
Ron laughed even harder at this, but Hermione swiftly smacked him across the back of the head. "What are you laughing at? He's beating you."  
  
As Ron rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, the other adults all broke into hysterics.  
  
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I know… not too much of a plot right now, but it does have one! Please review! ( 


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